The present invention relates to a computer for bicycles and to a method for obtaining riding information of a bicycle.
Computers for bicycles are known which calculate and display a plurality of riding information which are useful for the rider, such as instant speed, riding distance, speed of rotation of pedal cranks, etc. There are also known computers for bicycles programmed for displaying which are the selected sprocket and crown wheel, on the basis of information received from sensors placed on speed change control units.
A particularly useful information for the riders is the selected transmission ratio. Riders are normally used to express the transmission ratio by indicating the number of teeth of the selected crown wheel and sprocket, for instance 52/14 or 42/24. With known computers for bicycles, for displaying the transmission ratio in this way it would be necessary to store in the computer the number of teeth of crown wheels and sprockets. This operation would be quite long, especially because of the great number of rear sprockets which in the most recent solutions reaches 9 or 10. In addition, it is quite frequent that the user periodically replaces the rear wheel and the respective group of sprockets, in order to better adapt the bicycle transmission ratios to the characteristics of the ride. With known computers for bicycles, the step of storing the number of teeth of the sprockets should be repeated each time the rear wheel is replaced.
The object of the present invention is to overcome the above drawbacks.
In accordance with the invention, this object is achieved by a computer for bicycles and by a method for detecting riding information of a bicycle, having the features forming the subject of the claims.
The invention now will be disclosed with reference to the attached drawings, given purely by way of non-limiting example, in which:
FIG. 1 is a schematic lateral view of a race bicycle provided with a computer according to the present invention, and
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing schematically the main operating elements of the computer for bicycles according to the invention.